US: Most companies paid no federal income taxes

Report says most corporations pay no federal income taxes; lawmakers blame loopholesWASHINGTON (AP) - Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress.The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business [...] continue reading world news

Fed auctions another $25 billion to combat a serious credit squeeze

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Federal Reserve has auctioned another $25 billion in loans to the nation’s banks and given them more time to pay the money back in an effort to combat a serious credit squeeze.The Fed announced Tuesday that the money would be loaned at a rate of 2.754 percent. In the latest auction, [...] continue reading world news

McCain: Still ‘The One’ For Lobbyists

Video from the the past 18 years on McCain’s relationship with lobbyists.Added: August 12, 2008Source: YouTube continue reading world news

China to overtake US as largest manufacturer

China is set to overtake the US next year as the world’s largest producer of manufactured goods, four years earlier than expected, as a result of the rapidly weakening US economy.The great leap is revealed in forecasts for the Financial Times by Global Insight, a US economics consultancy. According to the estimates, next year China [...] continue reading world news

One Third of New Owners Owe More Than House Is Worth

Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) — Almost one-third of U.S. homeowners who bought in the last five years now owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth, according to Zillow.com, an Internet provider of home valuations.Second-quarter home prices fell 9.9 percent from a year earlier, giving 29 percent of owners negative equity, said Zillow, the [...] continue reading world news

Bear Stearns: Insider Trading

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) — On March 11, the day the Federal Reserve attempted to shore up confidence in the credit markets with a $200 billion lending program that for the first time monetized Wall Street’s devalued collateral, somebody else decided Bear Stearns Cos. was going to collapse.In a gambit with such low odds of success [...] continue reading world news

Credit crunch misery deepens for UBS

Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFPUBS has underlined its status as one of the biggest losers in the credit crunch by announcing £5.1bn of fresh writedowns and its fourth quarterly loss in a row.The Swiss bank said this morning that it made a net loss of 358m Swiss francs (£173m) in the second quarter of this year. The [...] continue reading world news

Bush’s Dirty Little Medicare Secret

We already know about the lies orchestrated by the White House to justify the invasion of Iraq . But there is a bigger secret that has not yet hit the mainstream media. And it probably never will until it’s too late. Those of you who read my book already know about it because I discuss [...] continue reading world news

US food prices to post biggest rise since ‘90, says USDA

WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - U.S. consumers should brace for the biggest increase in food prices in nearly 20 years in 2008 and even more pain next year due to surging meat and produce prices, the Agriculture Department said on Wednesday.Food prices are forecast to rise by 5 percent to 6 percent this year, making [...] continue reading world news

Goldman Sachs analyst recommends shorting shares of Citigroup

NEW YORK (AP) — A Goldman Sachs analyst has recommended a short-selling strategy for shares of Citigroup Inc., noting the bank is still heavily exposed to the troubled mortgage and consumer credit markets.In short-selling, an investor borrows shares of a company and sells them, betting the stock will go down. The investor then buys back [...] continue reading world news

Wall Street Journal: US Mint Halts Gold-Coin Sales

As gold prices tumbled from their highest level ever, investors and collectors loaded up on one-ounce “American eagle” gold-bullion coins. The buying spree came to an abrupt halt this week after the U.S. Mint stopped selling the coins for the first time since production began 20 years ago.David Gothard “Due to the unprecedented demand…our inventories [...] continue reading world news

The Big Sting Two

By Bob ChapmanThe plan for an economic takedown, the results of rampant market speculations, insiders picking up assets for pennies on the dollar, the coming hyperinflation, the credit crunch, collapse of the dollar carry trade, suppression of metals prices, American meddling in GeorgiaThe Big Sting Two is now being implemented by the Illuminati, but they [...] continue reading world news

A Few Speculators Dominate Vast Market for Oil Trading

Regulators had long classified a private Swiss energy conglomerate called Vitol as a trader that primarily helped industrial firms that needed oil to run their businesses.But when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission examined Vitol’s books last month, it found that the firm was in fact more of a speculator, holding oil contracts as a profit-making [...] continue reading world news

Buffett Says Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac `Game Is Over

Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest mortgage finance companies, “don’t have any net worth,” billionaire investor Warren Buffett said.“The game is over” as independent companies said Buffett, the 77-year-old chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., in an interview on CNBC today. “They were able to borrow without any of the [...] continue reading world news

FDIC gets ready for bank failures

Regulator, insurer boosts its staff and provisions as it faces its biggest challenge in decadesATLANTA - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is one of those agencies with a low profile but essential role similar to plumbing or electricity - you don’t notice it until the power’s out or the basement’s flooding.These days, the FDIC’s folks [...] continue reading world news

FBI saw mortgage crisis coming

A top official warned of widening loan fraud in 2004, but the agency focused its resources elsewhere.WASHINGTON — Long before the mortgage crisis began rocking Main Street and Wall Street, a top FBI official made a chilling, if little-noticed, prediction: The booming mortgage business, fueled by low interest rates and soaring home values, was starting [...] continue reading world news

Merrill, Wachovia Hit With Record Refinancing Bill

Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) — Merrill Lynch & Co., Wachovia Corp., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the rest of the U.S. finance industry are about to find out how expensive credit has become.Banks, securities firms and lenders have a record $871 billion of bonds maturing through 2009, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co., just as yields [...] continue reading world news

World’s Largest Gold Refiner Runs Out of Krugerrands

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) — Rand Refinery Ltd., the world’s largest gold refinery, ran out of South African Krugerrands after an “unusually large” order from a buyer in Switzerland.The order was for 5,000 ounces and it will take until Sept. 3 for inventories to be replenished, said Johan Botha, a spokesman for Rand Refinery in Germiston, [...] continue reading world news

Gustav May Hit Gulf Platforms Harder Than Katrina

Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) — Hurricane Gustav threatens to hurt U.S. oil and natural-gas production and refining more severely than hurricanes Katrina and Rita did three years ago.Gustav, downgraded to a Category 3 storm by the National Hurricane Center in Miami this morning, may strengthen to Category 4 later today and will make landfall as a [...] continue reading world news

ECB May Keep Rates at 7-Year High as Recession Looms

Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) — The European Central Bank will probably keep interest rates at a seven-year high this week, and may even threaten to raise them, at the risk of prolonging the economic slump.All but one of 47 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News predict the Frankfurt-based central bank will leave the benchmark rate at 4.25 [...] continue reading world news

Lehman Brothers in urgent talks on capital injection

The Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers is this weekend locked in talks with a group of foreign government-backed investment funds in an effort to secure billions of dollars in new equity capital.The Sunday Telegraph has learned that Lehman has intensified talks in recent days with Korea Development Bank, the South Korean ­government-backed lender, about [...] continue reading world news

UK: Housing sales sink to worst for 30 years

· Estate agents average one deal a week as prices fall· Rics calls for tax-free cash help for first-time buyersThe government is being urged to act swiftly to help drag the ailing property industry up off its knees as housing sales slow to their worst level in three decades and prices continue to decline.According to [...] continue reading world news

Supermarkets go high-tech to combat shoplifters

Cheese theft is on the rise, but razor blades, confectionary and oysters are still the top shoplifting targets. Photo / Brett PhibbsSupermarkets are introducing electronic tags on items popular with shoplifters and other thieves.The Source Tagging Alliance, set up by leading retailers, is encouraging suppliers to use radio frequency identification (RFID) and source tagging on [...] continue reading world news

U.S. Stocks at 25.8 Times Earnings Means Rally Can’t Continue

Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) — The best already may be over for the U.S. stock market this year.The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, which had the worst first half since 2002, added 0.2 percent this quarter, the only gain among the world’s 10 biggest markets in dollar terms. Shares in the benchmark index for American equity [...] continue reading world news

Korea Development’s Min Confirms Talks With Lehman

A man walks past the Korea Development Bank headquarters in Seoul on Aug. 24, 2008. Photographer: Nasha Lee/Bloomberg NewsSept. 2 (Bloomberg) — Korea Development Bank is in talks to buy a stake in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the fourth-biggest U.S. securities firm.Chief Executive Officer Min Euoo Sung confirmed the discussions in an interview in Seoul [...] continue reading world news

People’s Bank of China powers into Britain

China’s central bank has acquired a secret stake in Drax, the owner of the UK’s biggest coal-fired power station.The People’s Bank of China is understood to have been building its stake in Drax for about a year and now owns just over 0.7pc of the company.The stakebuilding provides a further illustration of the extent to [...] continue reading world news

U.S. Must Buy Assets to Prevent Financial Tsunami

The financial tsunami is already on its way. That is why the central banks have intervened on a massive scale to support the dollar, so that the tsunami will hit the economy a little later.Asking a totally broke government to buy assets is a interesting idea. And who will ultimately pay for any government spending? [...] continue reading world news

Who Wants To Be CEO of a Red, White and Blue Kakistocracy*?

*Kakistocracy is government by the very worst, least principled, and most incompetent people. You will be forgiven for thinking that the word, kakistocracy, perhaps derives from the word, “caca”, itself derived from the Latin, “cacare”. In fact, kakistocracy derives from the Greek, kakos, meaning “bad”.)Let me make myself clear from the outset: I am not [...] continue reading world news

Lehman May Shift $32 Billion of Mortgage Assets to `Bad Bank’

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) — Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. may shift about $32 billion of commercial mortgages and real estate to a new company that will be spun off in a move similar to the good-bank-bad-bank model used in the 1980s banking crisis, two people briefed on the discussions said.The bad bank, nicknamed Spinco for now, [...] continue reading world news

In The Eye Of The Storm

By John Browne, senior market advisor - Euro Pacific CapitalAs we enter the height of the hurricane season, it may be worthwhile to recall, when considering the economy at large, the particular deception that lurks in the “eye” of the storm. After a raging tempest, the sudden appearance of the calm ‘eye’ can all too [...] continue reading world news

House prices suffer biggest fall since records began

House prices: Dropped by more than £25,000 over the past year. Photo: Cate Gillon/GettyHouse prices fell by 1.8% in August, bringing the average price of a property in the UK below the government’s new stamp duty threshold, figures showed today.The UK’s largest lender, Halifax, said the average price of a property had fallen by 12.7% [...] continue reading world news

GM, Ford, Chrysler Sales Collapse

Chrysler President Jim Press: “Maybe towards the end of ‘09, going into 2010, there’ll start to be some signs of recovery.” Maybe not. ____________________________________________________________________________The Wall Street Journal is reporting Auto Sales Tumble, But Industry Sees Signs of Hope.Sales of cars and light trucks fell 15.5% to 1.25 million last month, down from 1.48 million a [...] continue reading world news